Bringing MathML Content and Presentation Markup to the Web with the IBM MathML Expression Editor

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Bringing MathML Content and PresentationMarkup
to the Webwith the IBM MathML Expression Editor

• Samuel S. Dooley
• IBM Research
• 29 June 2002

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IBM MathML Expression Editor

• Natural mathematical expression input
• Standard mathematical expression markup
• Mathematical user-interface component
• Mathematical application development
• High-quality mathematical formatting

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Requirements

• Windows platform e.g. Win2K
• Internet Explorer e.g. IE5.5
• techexplorer 3.1 Pro www.software.ibm.com/techexp
  lorer
• Zed 1.1.0 on a floppy

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Mathematical Applications

• Interactive web documents
• Generic computer algebra interfaces
• Multimedia presentations
• Pervasive mathematical data

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Programming Interfaces

• Initialization and synchronization
• Document markup
• Configuration
• User interface

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Configuration Framework

• Adapt the editor for particular math applications
• Customize the behavior of standard math operators
• Extend the collection of supported math operators

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Editing Architecture
Container
Desktop
File read/write Drag and drop Cut and paste
Scripts Applets CASs
Zed.exe
Zed.ocx
Zed Doc
Zed View
Zed App
Zed Core
techexplorer
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Customization

• Operator-based configuration properties
• Layout, traversal, editing, menus, palettes
• Configuration dialogs, files, methods

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Expression Framework
Presentation
Content
MathML Content
MathML Presentation
External
Zed Presentation
Zed Content
Internal
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Layout Framework
Zed Layout
Zed Presentation
Zed Content
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Navigation Framework

• Expression cursor indicates the current focus
• Only visits well-formed content expressions
• Traversal order is based on the presentation
• Content operators can override the default
  traversal order

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Editing Framework

• Editing using template transformations
• Editing maintains well-formed expressions
• Both content and presentation are available
• Placeholders allow incremental structure
  elaboration

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Content MathML

• Any MathML 2.0 content element can be created and
  edited
• Layout transformations convert content to
  presentation
• Traversal operates on well-formed content
• Editing transformations update the content

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Presentation MathML

• Any MathML 2.0 presentation element can be used
  for content element display
• Operator customizations can be used to add
  support for editing presentation
• Content and presentation can be mixed

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XML Support

• Elements
• Attributes
• Entities
• Character data

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Template Transformations

• Constants
• Unary operators
• Binary operators
• Nary operators
• Qualifier elements

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Custom Transformations

• Nary operators
• Array operators
• Associative operators
• Token elements

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Special Elements

• bvar
• condition
• partialdiff
• semantics

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Conclusions

• Zed is a full-featured application for MathML
  expression editing
• Zed is an extensible and customizable component
  for math applications
• Zed demonstrates the flexibility of content and
  presentation markup

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References

• Users Guide for the IBM MathML Expression Editor,
  Version 1.1.0. IBM, 25 March 2002.
• Bringing MathML Content and Presentation Markup
  to the Web with the IBM MathML Expression Editor.
  To appear, MathML 2002.
• Editing Mathematical Content and Presentation
  Markup in Interactive Mathematical Documents. To
  appear, ISSAC 2002.
• Programming the IBM MathML Expression Editor for
  Interactive Mathematical Applications. To
  appear, ICMS 2002.